Big Day Out 2012 Review @ Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne (29/01/2012)
Melbourne’s Big Day Out ticketholders had been keenly eyeing the weather forecasts for weeks prior to the event. The past few years have seen temperatures soar to unbearable heights. Unfortunately, as the event drew closer, expected temperatures rose and audiences were once again dreading a sweltering day in the 35°C sun.
Digging the first moshpit of the day, Hunting Grounds detonate with a furious force. Dressed entirely in black, one can’t help but question if this is a wise costume choice, considering the already high temperatures. The Ballarat sextet are one of the best live bands in the country, with fierce vocals, regular drum orgies (where you’ve got three or four people playing the drums at once), and guitar riffs sharp enough to bite your head off. Their upcoming debut album is sure to be a major hit. If there's one band that's going to bring international attention back to Australia, it's undoubtedly these guys.
Stonefield have been consistently compared to Led Zeppelin and it’s no surprise, as their brand of classic rock with killer guitars and pounding drums sounds like the sort of thing you’d find hidden in the back of your dad’s record collection There’s no denying that these girls have spunk, drawing a deceptively large crowd (essentially filling the Converse tent) and inspiring many audience members to pull out their air-guitars and jam along.
The layout at the racecourse has changed, with only The Boiler Room remaining in its usual location. The alteration is definitely a positive. In previous years, crowds would struggle to see late-afternoon headliners performing on the blue and orange stages, due to the blinding sun glaring into our eyes. That’s definitely not an issue this year. There's even enough space for tired punters to sit on the grass and still have a decent view.
“This is our first time in your city. Thanks for having us” yells Cage the Elephant’s rhythm guitarist, Brad Shultz, as his brother, lead singer Matt Shultz, awkwardly approaches the stage like a timid schoolboy. Of course, there’s absolutely nothing reserved about Shultz’s stage demeanour, as he performs at least half of the show while surfing from atop the fingertips of the crowd. He simply can’t be contained to the stage. He submerges into the oceans of arms, and upon reemergence, his clothes are completely soaked with the sweat of dozens of people, but he doesn’t care. Supporting their superb 2011 album, Thank You, Happy Birthday, the Kentucky quintet’s delicious brand of garage-rock gets the entire tent jumping in elation.
Digging the first moshpit of the day, Hunting Grounds detonate with a furious force. Dressed entirely in black, one can’t help but question if this is a wise costume choice, considering the already high temperatures. The Ballarat sextet are one of the best live bands in the country, with fierce vocals, regular drum orgies (where you’ve got three or four people playing the drums at once), and guitar riffs sharp enough to bite your head off. Their upcoming debut album is sure to be a major hit. If there's one band that's going to bring international attention back to Australia, it's undoubtedly these guys.
Stonefield have been consistently compared to Led Zeppelin and it’s no surprise, as their brand of classic rock with killer guitars and pounding drums sounds like the sort of thing you’d find hidden in the back of your dad’s record collection There’s no denying that these girls have spunk, drawing a deceptively large crowd (essentially filling the Converse tent) and inspiring many audience members to pull out their air-guitars and jam along.
The layout at the racecourse has changed, with only The Boiler Room remaining in its usual location. The alteration is definitely a positive. In previous years, crowds would struggle to see late-afternoon headliners performing on the blue and orange stages, due to the blinding sun glaring into our eyes. That’s definitely not an issue this year. There's even enough space for tired punters to sit on the grass and still have a decent view.
“This is our first time in your city. Thanks for having us” yells Cage the Elephant’s rhythm guitarist, Brad Shultz, as his brother, lead singer Matt Shultz, awkwardly approaches the stage like a timid schoolboy. Of course, there’s absolutely nothing reserved about Shultz’s stage demeanour, as he performs at least half of the show while surfing from atop the fingertips of the crowd. He simply can’t be contained to the stage. He submerges into the oceans of arms, and upon reemergence, his clothes are completely soaked with the sweat of dozens of people, but he doesn’t care. Supporting their superb 2011 album, Thank You, Happy Birthday, the Kentucky quintet’s delicious brand of garage-rock gets the entire tent jumping in elation.
Shultz’s stage banter is unconventional, yet hilarious, as he shrieks “hey, you guys!” in the voice of Sloth from The Goonies. He even threatens to reenact scenes from the film, Misery. “I want to take you all to my house, strap you down and every time you try to leave, I’ll break your legs. That’s how much I love you guys”. For his final entanglement in the web of arms, he’s held up on his knees, resting vertically upright atop the audience’s hands. He abruptly throws the microphone back at the stage from a distance of twenty metres, then thrusts backwards and is swamped once again by the moshpit, disappearing from view.
Best Coast treats a small crowd to lo-fi surf-pop songs of longing for boyfriends and smoking weed with boyfriends. Bethany Consentino’s voice is oddly mesmerizing, with a slight droning quality that’s strangely soothing. Meanwhile, in a colourful cacophony of copious guitars and wailing reverb, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s mid-afternoon set on the Hot Produce stage is something not to be missed. At times, there are up to five guys singing at once, yet you can’t understand what a single one of them is saying. Their psychobilly-garage-psychedelic-madness is a wild visual spectacle and a perverse yet delightful assault on the ears. This band will be huge.
Best Coast treats a small crowd to lo-fi surf-pop songs of longing for boyfriends and smoking weed with boyfriends. Bethany Consentino’s voice is oddly mesmerizing, with a slight droning quality that’s strangely soothing. Meanwhile, in a colourful cacophony of copious guitars and wailing reverb, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s mid-afternoon set on the Hot Produce stage is something not to be missed. At times, there are up to five guys singing at once, yet you can’t understand what a single one of them is saying. Their psychobilly-garage-psychedelic-madness is a wild visual spectacle and a perverse yet delightful assault on the ears. This band will be huge.
King Cannons’ delicious brand of authentic ‘50s rock’n’roll, complete with crisp white shirts with black suspenders and greaser-style pompadour hairdos, and occasional reggae fusion is the perfect accompaniment to the sweltering summer heat. The enthusiastic crowd swallows any opportunity to clap, jump and sing-along. It’s genuinely fun to be part of this crowd.
On the blue stage, The Living End is effortlessly demanding crowd participation with finesse. All they need to do is play classics like Second Solution and Prisoner of Society, and they’re guaranteed a sing-along that’s loud enough to invade and overpower the bands on the other stages. In celebration of Big Day Out’s 20th Anniversary, the Melbourne trio plays a cover of Nirvana’s Breed, commemorating the accidental headliners of the first Big Day Out in 1992. Perhaps sick of being the voice of the pain of spoiled teenagers with stupid haircuts, My Chemical Romance’s recent album tells tales of optimism and hope and makes for an exciting live show. “Come on, Melbourne! I showed you mine, now show me yours!” yells the boisterous Gerard Way, bounding across the stage and screaming at his mic as if it’s an enemy who has wronged him. Way takes time to thank every band on the lineup that he can think of and repeatedly expresses gratitude towards the crowd for their continued support and enthusiastic audience participation. |
“We never play in the daylight, so forgive us. We’re vampires, so this is new for us”, says Kasabian’s Tom Meighan, as if he’s trying to excuse a poor performance. However, the band’s show is far from poor. Meighan may be the best frontman in the world at the moment. Sure, he is far from being the most skilled singer, and he is certainly no instrumental virtuoso. The way he struts and pouts around the stage may seem arrogant and contrived, and his efforts at engaging the crowd could be considered cheesy. Yet, his magnetism is utterly undeniable and it thrives at the centre of the band. “You fuckers want something to really mosh to?!” yells songwriter/guitarist Sergio Pizzorno, in a not-so-subtle introduction for Switchblade Smiles, the lead single from their recent album, Velociraptor!. The track is simply massive. The ground literally shakes with the hungry bass and synth lines. During Vlad the Impaler, Meighan replaces the lyrical reference to Heath Ledger’s The Joker, with a blatant expression of distaste towards the festival’s headliner. “Kanye West, see you on the other side!” he hollers, whilst flipping the bird. Meighan throws his mic at the ground, resulting in an almighty bang. When he retrieves it, it’s a mangled mess. “I am the God of hellfire and I bring you FIRE” cry Meighan and Pizzorno together, as the band launches into their biggest hit, ‘Fire’. It’s fair to say that there’d be enough friction from the moshpit to actually spark a flame.
“You guys are amazing” shouts Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell. “To stay in the sun all day, then to drink a lot on top of that is a recipe for disaster” he says, seeming genuinely in awe of the determined Melbourne crowds, “but who cares!” The skies above the stage start to look angry, as vicious shades of grey circle the racecourse. Even if the sky was to erupt into a violent storm, nothing could compete against the force of the grunge giants.
Over in The Boiler Room, Art vs. Science commandeers the stage. Resembling a glammed-up Daft Punk in silver spacesuits and helmets, the band plays to a room of sweaty, mostly underage fans who are lost in a strobe-light firing range and bouncing inflated condoms. Suddenly shirtless, the band’s extended rendition of Parlez-vous Francais? (complete with beer chugging and a lesson on how to correcting shout “WOO!”) and the popular Flippers get the entire tent jumping around in excitement. It’s clear that most of the crowd that has gathered to see Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds have done so in the hope of catching some Oasis songs. Still, a decent portion of the crowd sings rapturously along to tracks from the High Flying Birds self-titled album. This is definitely the most admiring and passionate crowd of the day, stretching their arms high into the air at the end of each song, ensuring Gallagher not only hears their appreciation, but he can see and feel it too. |
His new material is simply exquisite, but that’s no surprise, considering the quality of most of the music credited to his name. A group of men at the base of the stage start to sing the Manchester United FC theme song. Gallagher promptly asks “is anyone here actually from Manchester except for me?” A mighty “yes” arrives in response from the majority of the crowd, which causes Gallagher to step back in disbelief. “Fuck off. You can’t all be from Manchester. That’s impossible,” he laughs.
After treating the crowd to a number of Oasis songs, such as Talk Tonight and Half the World Away, Gallagher finally announces “we’ve only got time for two more songs”, which results in a collective groan from the audience. “They’re fucking good, though. Seriously” he immodestly declares, laughing to himself as he launches into The Importance of Being Idle. Before the final song even commences, every member of the audience knows exactly what it will be. As the opening piano chords of the Oasis classic, Don’t Look Back in Anger, are heard, the crowd erupts into a mixture of romantic sighs and elated cheers. The audience almost overpowers Gallagher’s singing in the verses, and he leaves it entirely to us in the choruses. He doesn’t join us until the final chorus, as wave of electrified chills wash over the crowd. This is truly a magical moment and is the best conceivable way to end a Big Day Out.
While some ups and downs have surrounded the 2012 festival, the team behind the Big Day Out have once again delivered a brilliant day of live music. There’s still no better way to spend a lazy summer Sunday than in the company of some of the best local and international bands.
Lara Moates
After treating the crowd to a number of Oasis songs, such as Talk Tonight and Half the World Away, Gallagher finally announces “we’ve only got time for two more songs”, which results in a collective groan from the audience. “They’re fucking good, though. Seriously” he immodestly declares, laughing to himself as he launches into The Importance of Being Idle. Before the final song even commences, every member of the audience knows exactly what it will be. As the opening piano chords of the Oasis classic, Don’t Look Back in Anger, are heard, the crowd erupts into a mixture of romantic sighs and elated cheers. The audience almost overpowers Gallagher’s singing in the verses, and he leaves it entirely to us in the choruses. He doesn’t join us until the final chorus, as wave of electrified chills wash over the crowd. This is truly a magical moment and is the best conceivable way to end a Big Day Out.
While some ups and downs have surrounded the 2012 festival, the team behind the Big Day Out have once again delivered a brilliant day of live music. There’s still no better way to spend a lazy summer Sunday than in the company of some of the best local and international bands.
Lara Moates